Market watch: KSE-100 rises in line with global, regional markets

Benchmark index increases 307.52 points to settle at 45,984.46

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Stock Exchange staged a rebound on Thursday and the benchmark KSE-100 index amassed over 300 points as investors took cue from a rise in regional and global stock markets which cheered the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th US president.

Market participants were undeterred as they made fresh investment, though the current account turned negative once again in December 2020, as reported by the State Bank of Pakistan late on Wednesday.

Moreover, they expected a status quo in the monetary policy scheduled to be announced on Friday and overall optimism at the bourse lifted the index close to the 46,000-point mark.

Earlier, trading kicked off with a spike and the market kept on climbing steeply till afternoon. In late hours, however, a selling spree erased some of the gains with the KSE-100 index managing to close in the green.

At close, the benchmark KSE-100 index recorded an increase of 307.52 points, or 0.67%, to settle at 45,984.46 points.

Arif Habib Limited, in its report, stated that the market went up with a gain of 467 points during the session. It closed up by 308 points.

Renegotiations between the government and power producers for resolution of the circular debt issue supported Hubco, Kapco and K-Electric stocks which fared well.

On the other hand, a pause in institutional selling (due to redemptions) helped the index recover during the day.

Banking, exploration and production sectors recovered from the selling experienced in the past two sessions. The cement sector also performed well in anticipation of better quarterly results, the report added.

JS Global analyst Danish Ladhani said KSE-100 closed on a positive note after hitting a high of +467 points, nearly +1% higher than the previous day. Total trading volume stood at 606 million shares.

The market remained positive throughout the session where cement and financial sectors took command. In those sectors, Lucky Cement (+2.1%), Cherat Cement (+1.5%), DG Khan Cement (+0.8%) MCB (+0.7%), HBL (+0.9%) and UBL (+0.2%) closed positive.

Pakistan Oilfields (+0.4%), Pakistan Petroleum (+0.9%) and Oil and Gas Development Company (+0.3%) in the exploration and production sector were in the green despite a plunge in oil prices in the international market.

“We recommend investors to take any downside as an opportunity to buy stocks,” the analyst said.

Overall, trading volumes jumped to 606.4 million shares compared with Wednesday’s tally of 476.6 million. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs17.9 billion.

Shares of 418 companies were traded. At the end of the day, 227 stocks closed higher, 173 declined and 18 remained unchanged.

K-Electric was the volume leader with 143.8 million shares, gaining Rs0.15 to close at Rs4.25. It was followed by Hum Network with 43.4 million shares, losing Rs0.32 to close at Rs7.22 and Pakistan International Bulk Terminal with 31.4 million shares, gaining Rs0.16 to close at Rs12.84.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs31.5 million worth of shares during the trading session, according to data compiled by the National Clearing Company of Pakistan.